The Other Empire
by Unknownlight
Summary: It's a simple question: What would happen if Eggman and Robotnik switched places? Sega/SatAM crossover. Cancelled.
1. Welcome History Lovers

**Sonic The Hedgehog and all related characters belong to Sega. Sally and co. belong to DiC Entertainment. I'm only doing this once…**

**Hey everyone! To anyone who actually read my last fanfiction, _Through the Flames and Fire_ (read: nobody), I mentioned a fanfic that I was working on in my author's note. Well, this is it. YAY! **

**Yeah, yeah. On with the story.**

* * *

HGTSV: _Welcome history-lovers. I am your trusty sidekick, The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Sonicverse (also known as the HGTSV). First, a little history behind myself. As you very well know, being citizens of the Robotnik Empire, that the official story behind the being known to most as Sonic the Hedgehog is entirely inaccurate, due to most of it being written by our very own unfortunately long-since dead Emperor and Sonic's arch-nemesis, Dr. Robotnik. Soon after reading the completely false version of events, a group of rebels, known only as "The Council of Four", created myself to tell the true, unbiased story of Sonic the Hedgehog. Today, history-lover, you are reading Section 3-XX: The Other Empire, taking place directly after Section 3-K: Sonic Unleashed and Section 6-I: The Void. _

_Take note that I have organized the following so that the setting will change every chapter. If one chapter is set in the Segaverse, then the next will be set in the SatAM universe and etc._

_So, without further ado, enjoy your whirlwind trip through history!_

Once upon a time there was a man named Dr. Ivo Robotnik. He was a scientist, like his grandfather, Professor Gerald Robotnik, who was a hero in his mind. His grandfather spent most of his life working non-stop on board his own personal space station on projects that would help the people of Earth. These "projects" included cures for various diseases, convenient household appliances, and the key to immortality.

Ivo wanted to help the people of Earth, but wanted to do so in a different way. Ivo was aware of all the corrupt politicians that ruled the Earth with an iron fist. These men were the ones that would make sure that the rich would get richer and the poor would get poorer. Ivo realized that the only way to truly help the people of Earth would be to create a new system of government that would hopefully replace the old corrupt one. He hoped that his new system would be as close to a global Utopia as possible.

After a few years of developing this system, he went to present it to his local city council, hoping that, if not entirely accepted, at least some of his ideas would be implemented into the current system of government. Instead, he was immediately charged with treason and placed under house arrest for the next ten years. During this time, Ivo went slightly insane and decided that if he couldn't get people to accept his system by peace, then he would do so by force; in the long run this would be better for everyone. Actually let me clarify that: this is what his _logical_ mind told him. In reality, he just simply wanted revenge.

After spending about eight years under house arrest, Ivo decided that he couldn't stand the thought of staying under arrest any longer, so he attempted an escape on June 23 as his birthday present to himself. Unfortunately, after spending eight years doing nothing but eating, lazing out, and plotting, he'd become quite fat, to the point that his body shape actually resembled an egg. Because of this, he got stuck in a certain air duct that he was required to crawl though to complete his escape. Ivo was then forced to cry out for help to the guards who were at the time looking all over for said escaped convict. The duct was soon taken apart to allow the embarrassed Ivo Robotnik to escape. He was charged 10,000 dollars for the re-assembly of the air duct as well as charged an extra five years under house arrest for attempted escape, which of course fueled Ivo's revenge even further.

After an excruciatingly long seven years, Ivo was finally released from house arrest. He quickly set forth his revenge plan, sending robots to set up base in the tropical islands of southern Central America collecting small animals on the way to use as living, emission-free batteries. Fortunately, his plan was foiled by a thirteen year-old blue hedgehog named Sonic. He continued his attempts of setting up a permanent base there, as this would be needed in order to take on G.U.N., but he was stopped every time.

Eventually, Ivo discovered the ancient legends of The God of Destruction: Chaos. Ivo figured that if he could release Chaos from its prison and find out how to control it, then he could simply release Chaos into the world and have it do the dirty work (destroying the human and sapient race), no elaborate bases or wars needed. Despite this, nobody actually considered him a threat, instead they thought of him as a deranged freak that would need to be locked up for his own good. The press even nick-named him the embarrassing name of "Eggman" because of his peculiar body shape. Nevertheless, the newly-named "Dr. Eggman" ignored the opinions of the public and pushed forward in his attempt to create his personal Utopia, now named the "Eggman Empire". Alas, he was thwarted again by Sonic the Hedgehog.

Dr. Eggman has since attempted plan after plan for his goal of world conquest. Today we will show you a special behind-the-scenes look at Dr. Eggman working in his secret base on a new invention that will apparently help him in his quest for world domination:

* * *

_Universe: Sega_

_Location: Dr. Eggman's base in Mystic Ruins_

_Date: 5:00 pm, December 21, 2012_

Alone in a carefully-polished factory/science lab run mainly by robots, Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik was hard at work at his new invention: a device that would create a _timed _version of Chaos Control.

His theory went like this: instead of the machine powering a regular Chaos Control, it would teleport the subject to any spot, but would leave a small part of their aura behind. When an aura is separated, it naturally wants to re-unite with itself. This is kept from happening by the machine by issuing a small but steady amount of Chaos Energy opposite to the type used to Chaos Control (e.g., if positive Chaos Energy was used to Chaos Control the subject, then negative Chaos Energy would be applied to neutralize it). This fragment of an aura could then be contained and moved to any location. After a set amount of time, the flow of neutralizing Chaos Energy would be stopped and the subject would automatically teleport itself back to its aura fragment, basically allowing you to use Chaos Control twice but use only half the energy required.

"EUREKA!", Eggman yelled, with his voice positively dripping with cliché, "I've finally done it, it's finally done!"

Yup, you guessed it. Eggman's finished his Timed Chaos Control project.

"Decoe, Bocoe! Come here at once"

On cue, a tall gold robot followed by a short silver one ran into view.

"Right away Doctor" the gold one said.

"What do you want Your Eggcellency?" said the silver one.

"I want you two to help me test my new invention, you know which one I'm talking about. One of you has to be the subject. I don't really care who."

"One of _us _Doctor?!", Decoe cried, "But you said yourself that this was experimental, our circuits might be fried in the process!"

"Do as you're told."

"But…but" Decoe couldn't think of a reply.

"ENOUGH! You are my invention! You shall do whatever I tell you to do! Understood?"

"Yes Doctor, understood." Decoe sighed in defeat.

"For all that needless complaining, _you_, Decoe, will be the test subject for my ingenious invention. Bocoe, start the pre-activation procedure for Timed Chaos Control."

"Yes Doctor." Bocoe quickly saluted, then rushed off towards the control panel next to a very futuristic looking metal platform.

"And you, Decoe, you go and stand on the TCCV1 Teleportation Activation Devise."

"Yes Doctor" Decoe responded unenthusiastically as he started walking toward the futuristic looking metal platform.

As Decoe was walking past the control panel, he heard Bocoe whisper into his ear.

"Psst! If you don't make it through in one piece, can I have your replacement circuit board?"

If robots could sigh, Decoe would be doing so right now.

As Decoe walked up the single step to the circular futuristic looking metal platform, Eggman started relaying instructions.

"Okay, Decoe, stay there and don't chicken out at the last moment. This is still experimental and may hurt your non-existent nerves a bit. Bocoe, start the activation sequence for the TCCV1. Set the coordinates for my base in Central City."

"Right away Sir." Bocoe said, as he punched in the activation code.

The green strips on the metal platform began to glow as a humming sound emitted from the machine. A glass tube came down from the ceiling, surrounding Decoe as the green strips glowed even brighter, finally filling up the small cylinder. The light glowed brighter and brighter until...

Nothing.

The power machine powered down.

"What happened Doctor?" Bocoe asked.

Eggman stared blankly at his broken machine, before finally "answering" Bocoe's question.

"If I_ knew,_ Bocoe, then I probably would've kept it from happening, wouldn't I?"

"...Yes Doctor."

"Good, now that we have agreed on that, open up the glass chamber so that I can check what's wrong with it."

"Of course sir, right away." Bocoe said as he typed out a command on the control panel's virtual keyboard.

Immediately the glass retracted gracefully as a relieved Decoe stumbled out and an annoyed evil genius walked in, screwdriver in hand. He quickly unscrewed the main power supply box, and realized that he had already found the problem.

Eggman had discovered that in the power supply box was an electrified family of non-sapient rats who had apparently been chewing at the wire casing.

"Those miserable, vile creatures..." he mumbled under his breath.

He unplugged the cable to take a closer look at it, and, to his relief, the wire itself was not damaged. The rats had simply chewed through the casing and created an electrical imbalance, that, while brief, had been enough to trigger the safety mechanism.

"Bocoe, hand me the electrical tape. I'll just tape the wire casing back together."

"Yes Doctor." Bocoe said handing him the tape, wondering how much longer it was until his shift was over.

Eggman taped the wire casing back together and plugged the cord back in.

What a stupid mistake.

Immediately after plugging back in the cord, the glass cylinder came down from the ceiling, trapping Eggman inside, while the green strips started glowing.

"What's happening!" Eggman yelled frantically, pounding on the glass.

"It seems that when you plugged the cord back in, it started up its previous instructions." Bocoe replied.

"Isn't there a emergency stop somewhere there?" Eggman cried, the green lights glowing brighter.

"I don't see any." Decoe said.

"But don't worry doctor, if your machine works then you'll just be sent to your base in Central City. If you get sent somewhere else then you just have to wait forty-eight hours until you're brought back here." Bocoe said reassuringly.

"Oh yeah,_ that's_ reassuring." Eggman said grimly.

"Oh, I found the emergency stop, it's this big red button!", Decoe exclaimed, "But...it's password protected. Why would you password protect an emergency button?"

"Shut up!" Eggman yelled, the light glowing even brighter now. "The password is SONIC."

"Sonic, eh?", Decoe said mockingly, "Doctor, you're_ really_ getting ironic in your old age".

"Just shut up!"

"Okay, okay. S-O-N-I..."

Just then a bright flash of Chaos Control momentarily blinded Decoe. When he looked up, the doctor was gone...

Replaced with someone who looked similar to the doctor, only even uglier and with big black eyes.

* * *

In another flash of Chaos Control, Eggman found himself on the floor of a weird building where everything seemed to be made of metal and nothing more.

He looked up to see a very short man in green clothing looking down at him, mouth open in shock. His hair was a mess, and that's saying something because he only had a few strands of hair. Eggman also noticed his very oddly and undescribeable shaped head, which looked like it belonged to one of the sapients.

To be truthful, for a split-second, Eggman thought he was a leprechaun.

After about a minute, the green-clothed man regained his composure and said to Eggman:

"Who are you? But more importantly, what are you doing in the base of Dr. Robotnik?!"

* * *

**A/N: No, I'm not making these numbers up. I actually have a system where I can label a number/letter combo to any event in the Sonicverse. Sect. 1 is pre-_Sonic Adventure_. Sect. 2 is post-_SA, _pre-_Shadow the Hedgehog_. Sect. 3 is post-_ShtH_. Sect. 4 is all of _AoStH _etc_. _Then each letter represents one game/episode/issue. "XX" simply means "never happened in canon", for instance the Subspace Emissary part of SSBB, all fanfictions, and this story.**


	2. Leprechaun

**"Chaos is Power. Aura is Life. Power is Enriched by the Heart. Life Enriches the Chaos. **

**Chaos is the Power.**

**Aura is the Heart." **

* * *

HGTSV: _The following is an insert from Section 16-B: Aura Energy._

"_Chaos Energy and Aura Energy work hand in hand to create the foundations of the all universes. The main difference that separates Aura Energy from its Chaos counterpart is that while Chaos Energy creates all of physical reality, Aura Energy creates the souls of everything in the universe. Aura Energy is what allows objects of being to physically exist in the world made of Chaos. _

_"When an object of being ends its life, the aura leaves the body and absorbs itself into the universe. Usually the aura separates itself and absorbs itself into the entire universe, becoming a small part of every object of being. But occasionally, the aura will stay together and fully absorb itself into an unborn object of being, basically becoming the base of the theory of reincarnation._

_"When an aura is artificially separated before the life of the object of being ends, the aura does everything in its power to re-unite with itself. If a part of the aura has just recently been Chaos Controlled, the aura would, rather than using its own power, use the residue Chaos Energy to Chaos Control back, which can then be neutralized. The main danger of artificial aura separation is that if there's a glitch in the system, or if an excess amount of neutralizing Chaos Energy is used, then the aura may get damaged and permanently separated from the rest of the aura. When the rest of aura senses that a part of itself has 'died', it immediately breaks up as a defense mechanism to prevent further damage. This basically causes the object of being to cease to be, as if they never existed." _

HGTSV: _By reading this, you can clearly see how dangerous artificial aura separation really is, and you can clearly see why Decoe and Bocoe were so wary about being the first test subjects. To be truthful, though, Decoe wasn't the first test subject. Eggman tested it beforehand with small objects and obviously made sure the aura separation process would work before testing it with a large object. The main purpose of Eggman's test with Decoe was both to laugh at the reactions of the robots and to test the guidance system of the machine._

_Quite obviously, as you will soon see, the guidance system didn't quite work. _

* * *

_Universe: SatAM_

_Location: Dr. Robotnik's base in Robotropolis_

_Date: 5:15 pm, December 21, 2014._

Only a few seconds after Eggman was unceremoniously thrown to the floor of this mysterious factory-like building by Chaos Control, his brain began to work overtime to logically speculate on where he transported to. Looking around the environment, along with remembering that the space-time guidance system wasn't working correctly, suggested to Eggman that he was probably warped to another dimension, perhaps Nega's.

Then he realized that the leprechaun was speaking to him.

"Who are you? But more importantly, what are you doing in the base of Dr. Robotnik?!"

"_Yup.", Eggman thought, "It's a parallel dimension, one in which I already seem to exist."_

Eggman cleared his throat. "I _am_ Dr. Robotnik. I have recently completed a device that allows me to travel through time and space, an effect known as Chaos Control. I was accidentally trapped in the machine and was transported to an alternate dimension, namely, here."

Eggman barely kept a straight face as he watched the little green man's face become the physical manifestation of the phrase "WTF!".

"GUARDS! Take away this impostor and throw him in the dungeon!" the little man screamed.

"Yes Snively sir." the SWATbots droned.

Eggman looked up to see huge metal monstrosities walk into the room. Each robot had dark blue Darth Vader – like armor with guns infused onto its arms. Each also had an intimidating red visor where its eyes should be; eyes which were glowing and flashing as if they were scanning the room for the "intruder".

Needless to say, Eggman was quite terrified.

After his initial fear at the sight of these robots, Eggman began to think, as the SWATbots grabbed a hold of him, how utterly stupid he was. But to his surprise, the SWATbots let go of him as soon as they touched him.

"ERROR. Chest-mounted laser sensors indicate that prisoner is identified by databanks as 'Master Robotnik' Cannot imprison Master. Cannot compute."

"Compute it then!" Snively yelled annoyed.

"Yes Snively sir. Processor standing-by as artificial intelligence CPU attempts to find loophole. Non-essential systems shutting down for maximum efficiency. Stand-by mode activates in 5 seconds. 4..."

"NO! That's not what I meant you deadbolts!" Snively screamed, banging on the metal chest-plate of the lead SWATbot.** (A/N: Personally, I believe that Snively has just as big of a temper as the SatAM Robotnik)**

"2... 1... Shut down has commenced."

On cue, all the SWATbots shut down their artificial bodies, rerouting their power supply to their CPU. Then they began their attempt to use their lacking brain functions to find a loophole in the built-in programming that kept them from imprisoning "Master Robotnik".

Also on cue, Eggman could restrain himself no longer and broke into laughter because of the total stupidity of the situation.

Snively, on the other hand, appeared completely dumbfounded.

After regaining his composure, Dr. Eggman started talking to Snively again.

"Anyway, as I was saying, I believe that I am your Dr. Robotnik from another dimension. In any case, I seem to have complete control here whether you like it or not. So, you should probably start listening to me."

Snively stared into Eggman's eyes for about a minute as he thought about the situation he was in, and the consequences of any decisions he might make. While never truly proven, The Council of Four believe that Snively's inner monolougue went something like this:

"_Can I trust this man? Yes, he certainly does look similar to Robotnik, almost like a younger version of him. They both have those infamously large and ugly mustaches, uggh. They both wear slighty similar red clothing, and they're both ridiculously fat. But, can I trust him?_

_..._

_No, I can't trust him. But what should I do? Should I just lull him into a false sense of security, then try to take over? Yes, that's the best plan. Yes, that is what I will do. Something I've been wanting to do for a long time..."_

Noticing that Eggman was starting to get impatient, Snively finally responded.

"Okay, for the sake of this conversation, let's say that you were from another dimension. But that doesn't explain why_ my_ Dr. Robotnik suddenly disappeared from plain sight if it was_ you_ that was teleporting through space and time."

This actually stumped Eggman too, since it really didn't make sense why the Chaos Energy would teleport his counterpart since he made sure that all the energy was contained. Nevertheless, Eggman attempted to answer the question with his best theory about what happened.

"Well,", Eggman explained, "I was working with a mixture of both Chaos and Aura Energy, I'd say my best guess is that if an aura of a person enters a universe that contains a person that has the same aura, then they will conflict with each other.

The person that had just been Chaos Controlled probably has some residue Chaos Energy surrounding them, anchoring them in the new dimension. So instead the real resident of the dimension probably gets transported somewhere else so that there's no confliction. It's kind of like trying to stick two magnets of the same pole together."

"..."

"..."

"... What's a Chaos Control?"

Eggman sighed. "Whatever, just take my word for it."

Snively didn't respond.

Eggman continued, "Yeah, anyway, as long as I'm stuck here, this world would be a perfect place to make my empire. I don't really care where I make it, as long as I do!"

Snively turned to face him. "You _already_ have an empire here."

"I do?"

"Yes, you do."

"A world-wide empire?"

"Yes."

"And I'm the sole Emperor?"

"Yes." Snively was starting to get annoyed.

"Are there any enemies to my empire?"

"Actually, yes there are. There's the so-called 'Freedom Fighters' to deal with"

"Ah, a good new challenge! Where does your Dr. Robonik do most of his planning?"

"His study, the door behind you."

"Good, good..." Eggman said evilly as he turned around and walked towards the study.

Only a few seconds after the door closed, the SWATbots finally woke out of their stand-by phase.

"Snively Sir. Search turned up positive results. Loophole found in programming. Awaiting instructions."

"Good, good..."

* * *

**A/N: Personally, I don't like this chapter that much... but anyway, Aura Energy is going to play a larger part in this story near the end, so please, at least _attempt _to read through those beginning paragraphs. They _will_ be important later.**


	3. Living Weapon

**A/N: Okay, I'm _really_ sorry it took so long to get this chapter up, but I have a few (somewhat) excuses: First, I got Sonic Chronicles and ended up getting addicted to it, making working on this basically an impossibility until I beat the game. Just after I beat the game, I got a 360 with The Orange Box as a gift (Portal is _awesome_, by the way), also keeping me from working on this. Plus there's school, of course.  
**

**Yeah...anyway, I'm sorry for taking so long to post this chapter (especially since nothing really happens in it) and I _promise _to update the next chapter sooner.**

_Universe: Sega_

_Location: Some forest in the Southern Hemisphere_

_Date: 5:30 pm, December 21, 2012._

_--  
_

_"Running."_

"_That's what I'm meant to do."_

"_Running."_

"_That's what I **need** to do."_

"_Right foot forward. Push off with a mini hop. Left foot forward. One step at a time. "_

"_I run through a puddle. Water splashes around me. I notice a drenched rabbit looking at me, annoyed. But she's gone within a blink of an eye. "_

"_Every step I take, every tree I pass, I leave every thought behind me. Nothing can ever keep up. And I never wait up for them."_

"_I see a branch up ahead. It's too late to change direction. I do a somersault the next time I step. I flex my quills. I keep rolling until I meet the branch. I slice through it easily. I jump out of the somersault and keep on running."_

"_I am Sonic the Hedgehog."_

"_I am a living weapon."_

--

On the other side of the continent, by Tails' workshop in the Mystic Ruins, Miles Prower was in an argument with a construction worker.

"What do you _mean_ I'm being evicted from my workshop?!"

"Just what I said, the government is funding a project to clean up the Mystic Ruins, they want to clean up all this crap and turn it into a real forest. So you have to leave your workshop until we finish the project."

The two-tailed fox growled. "But you're not allowed to do that! This is MY property! The government can't just do whatever they want without the approval of the property owner!"

"We've had a bulletin up announcing this project for the last six months in the Central City Community Center. Nobody responded with any criticism or rejections."

"I never go to Central City!"

"Sorry, but that's your fault then."

The fox sighed in defeat. "Okay, okay. But how long are you planning to do this for?"

"Well, we're paid by the hour, so, um…"

The worker stopped talking as soon as he noticed that the yellow kitsune's face had become bright red with rage. The more Tails thought about this arrangement, the angrier he got. All of the things he had ever worked on were in his workshop. The _Tornado_ was in there, all of his little inventions were in there, and all of his tools. Not to mention that it was where he _lived!_

AND the workers would deliberately work as slowly as physically possible simply in order to get more money! It was _insane_!

Tails took a few deep breaths to control his anger, reminding himself that it wasn't this man's fault (well, not _directly_ anyway).

"Fine, but can I at least get something from inside to take with me?"

"…Yes, but you need to be out of here within the next few minutes, alright?"

"Yeah, yeah." Tails sighed as he started walking back indoors.

A half-minute later Tails returned back outside, now with an Emerald Tracker in hand.

"_Always good to have one._"

Tails started twirling his two namesakes in a helicopter-like fashion, quickly lifting himself off the snow-covered forest floor and into the sky, heading towards Station Square.

--

_Location: Central City Shopping Mall_

_Time: 5:45 pm, December 21, 2012_

"Oh, isn't the dress just _lovely,_ Cream?" Amy squealed as she held up a horrendous-looking purple polka dotted dress, complete with yellow lacing around the sleeves and collar.

"It looks great Amy!" Cream happily replied without even looking up, completely focused on the hot chocolate within her hands.

"I totally agree! Wait here Cream as I go try this on."

"Okay." The six year-old rabbit replied, tongue having just been burned by the drink.

After a few minutes of Cream blowing on her hot chocolate to cool it down, Amy stepped out of the dressing room wearing the most hideous dress known to humanity, smiling bright with oblivious joy.

Several random bystanders snickered.

"So Cream, how do I look?"

This time, Cream looked up to see the dress Amy was wearing, only to have her eyes widen to the size of dinner plates when she saw the specimen that Amy said looked "lovely".

"This dress is great, isn't it?" Amy continued, not letting Cream answer her question. "I think I'll wear this to Tails' Christmas party next Tuesday! Won't it shock Sonic to see _me_ in an amazing dress like _this_?"

_"It'll shock him alright,"_ Cream thought with dismay.

"Um, Amy, maybe you shouldn't wear this dress to the party."

Amy was surprised. "Why not Cream? What in the world gave you such a silly idea like that?"

"Umm", Cream tried to choose her words carefully, "Maybe you shouldn't because, um, otherwise it would look _so _good that it would, er, steal the shine from other people who have worked just as hard to find something good to wear?" Cream tried to look sweet and innocent.

Amy sighed. "As much as I hate to admit it, I think you're right Cream. I shouldn't be so greedy." Amy looked around at the piles of clothes she had already tried on. "I think I'll buy this one instead." Amy said with glee as she held up a purple skirt.

Cream breathed a sigh of relief. "Good! Should we head home then after you buy that?"

"Of _course_ not Cream" Amy said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Next we go shoe shopping!"

"…" Cream drank a sip of her hot chocolate, only to find that it was cold.

--

_Location: The Master Emerald Shrine on Angel Island_

_Time: 5:40 pm, Dec. 21, 2012._

Knuckles the Echidna, the last of his kind, the guardian of the Master Emerald, was currently staring deeply into the heart of said emerald. If one were to somehow fly up to the floating island, evade all of the Guardian's traps, sneak up close to him without him noticing, and peek over his shoulder (an impossible task) they would see the cerulean-coloured furball staring into nothing. But to Knuckles point of view, he was staring at one of the most important events yet in his quite eventful life.

The Master Emerald was showing him something, and only to him. That in itself told Knuckles that what it was showing him was important, as it hadn't done that since the release of Chaos, so long ago. And what it was showing him was quite interesting, to say the least.

While there was no sound, Knuckles saw an even more evil-looking version of Dr. Eggman appear in a flash a Chaos Control right beside two of Eggman's robots, who were freaking out. This weird version of Dr. Eggman was even fatter and had terrifying red-on-black coloured eyes.

For a little while, Bizzaro-Eggman looked around the room curiously, occasionally talking a bit to the two robots, before hurrying through a door on the opposite side of the room.

With that, Knuckles' vision ended.

Knuckles stood around dumbly for a few minutes, trying to sort out what happened. Eventually, he seemed to find his way and began running to the end of the floating island.

"This is not good." Knuckles said grimly as he jumped off the island.

After free-falling for a few seconds, he spread out his dreadlocks to catch the air and slow down his fall to the point that he was able to glide.

"I have to find Sonic."

--

_Location: Unnamed forest in the mountains north of New Westopolis._

_Time: 6:00 pm, Dec. 21, 2012._

Sonic was running through the snow-covered floor of the forest. He _hated_ snow. Not only was it just another form of water, but it also slowed down Sonic's ability to run. Luckily though, Sonic's body heat is always naturally high, a side effect of running so much, so he wasn't bothered by the cold like other living things.

As Sonic was mentally complaining about how wet his shoes were getting, he noticed some of the trees scorched black, as if they were hit by blasters. Caught up in his own mind, Sonic dismissed these thoughts. But then, before he even realized it, he saw red blotches in the pure-white snow.

This time, Sonic immediately stopped in his tracks to make sure that the red blotches weren't what he thought they were.

Unfortunately for him, they were.

Along with the blood marks, he saw many pairs of footsteps marching through the forest, the blood stains and scorch marks following. Sonic could tell exactly what the footsteps were from.

"Egg Pawns." he growled.

* * *

HGTSV: _The following is an insert from Section 17-B: The End of the World._

"_During approximately 1000 B.C. (Before-Chaos), when the Echidna Clan was the most powerful civilization of the Old World, a group of ancient echidna meteorologists created an accurate date system. This system was much more accurate then our current system, requiring no leap days or time changes. One of its features was that it separated all of time into separate 'Ages'. We are currently living in the Sixth Age, and the Seventh Age is supposed to start on the equivalent of December 21, 2012. After the God of Destruction, Perfect Chaos, caused the death of most of the Echidna civilization, this date system seemed to be lost forever…_

_But then, in the 1940s, Professor Gerald Robotnik discovered writings of this ancient date system during his research of The Ultimate Life. Of course, any normal curious person would first notice, before anything else, that the calendar seemed to randomly end on Dec. 21, 2012. Well, that's exactly what Prof. Robotnik immediately noticed, but he misinterpreted this fact and instead thought that this date was when the Echidnas predicted that the end of the world would occur. _

_He published the Echidna 'prediction' in his following report, along with new information about the other Echidna prediction concerning 'The Ultimate Life' _(please read Section 17-A: The Ultimate Life for more information on this subject)_. Once his report was published publicly to the scientific community, the prediction became a pop-culture phenomena. _

_Some people completely believed in the 'prediction', just waiting for Eggman (for who else could it be) to destroy the world. Others, like believers of Enigma also believed that the world was going to end, but they said that the Echidnas got the day wrong, and the end of the world would two days later on Dec. 23, 2012 (also, when dealing with the year '2012': 20+1+2 equals 23). Of course, then there were the people who thought that the whole idea was idiotic and that nothing at all would happen on that day. _

_Everyone was wrong. Only the Ancient Echidnas were right, because on December 21, 2012, a new age began."_

* * *

**A/N: Yay! We finally get to see Sonic and the gang! I actually had a lot of writers' block attempting to write this chapter. I just kind of found it hard to talk about the daily life of Sonic Team when there wasn't a world-threatening disaster arriving. By the way, when I was first writing this chapter, I completely forgot that it was supposed to be winter. So if any of the winter references seems rushed or added in just for the sake of it, remember that they were.**

**This is also the first chapter where you see the _slightly_ more serious stuff in this story rather than the humorous light-hearted fun from the previous chapters. This is more how I want the story to go, I can't write so light-heartedly for so long until I feel like changing to some other style. I _know _that I'm going to bump this rating up form K+ to T eventually, but for now I'm keeping it fun.**

**About all that stuff at the end, it's basically just a sonic-ized version of the ancient Mayan prediction of the end of the world. But I added the surprisingly little-known fact that the Mayans _did not _predict the end of the world. Each of the Mayan "Ages" corresponded with a major event, like an ice age or a meteor that smashes into the planet. According to the Mayans, the "major event" that occurs on twenty-twelve is that the Earth aligns with the exact center of the universe, something that only happens every 20,000 years or so. That's it. No global disaster.**

**Speaking of those HGTSV entries, if you're bored by them and just want to move on to the story, you can skip them if you like. Their main purpose is just providing back story to my overly-detailed version of the Sonicverse. **

**And as a final note, how well do you think I did Sonic's thoughts at the beginning of the chapter? I think I did pretty well, even though it took me _forever_ to figure out how to write it so that it was in character. **

**Thank you all for the reviews, so keep on at it and review this chapter please. :)  
**


	4. Ignored

**A/N: What? I've been gone so long and all I have to write is a**_**nother**_** intro chapter?! Yup, I realized with dismay that before I get into the actual **_**plot**_** (which should start next chapter), I'm going to have to introduce all the characters and situations. I'm not going to bother taking up an entire chapter to introduce the plot between Dr. Robotnik and Decoe/Bocoe, since there's not much happening there, but I**_** do**_** have to introduce the Freedom Fighters. **

**Warning: This chapter contains a cringe-worthy attempt at romance: SonSal. I don't even really **_**like**_** the pairing, I'm just trying to keep the fic true to the cartoon.**

**And as a final note before you start reading, I am**_** so**_** not looking forward to trying to write Antoine's accent. If anyone knows any guidelines on how to write his accent, I would highly appreciate receiving a PM with that info. **

**On with the (highly delayed) show!**

**

* * *

**

_Universe: SatAM_

_Location: Knothole Village, The Great Forest._

_Time: 5:25 pm, Dec. 21, 2014. _

"Sonic! _Sonic! _Wake up!"

Sonic groaned as he felt himself being shaken awake by two stubborn hands. He tried to ignore them and fall back asleep, but the hands were relentless, continuing to shake him no matter how much he tried to shoo them away.

Finally giving up, Sonic opened his eyes a fraction of an inch to see who the hands belonged to, and was unsurprised that they were attached to an acorn-brown squirrel in a bright blue vest, namely, Sally Acorn. What he_ was_ surprised by was that, rather than being in his bed as he expected, he was actually in Sally's hut, sitting upright in a quite uncomfortable wooden chair.

"Finally, you're awake." Sally said as she breathed a sigh of relief. "You seemed like you wanted to go into hibernation or something!"

"Hunh? What happened?" Sonic said in the tone of voice you'd expect from someone who has just woken up.

Sally sighed again. "Sonic, you _fell asleep_ as I was trying to tell you about what Nicole found. It's_ five-thirty in the afternoon_ Sonic! How could you have fallen asleep anyway!?"

"Oh yeah," Sonic said as he slowly started regaining his memories, "You said something about some void thingy...anyway, it's not _my_ fault I fell asleep! I, uh, couldn't get to sleep last night."

"And it just _couldn't _have been caused by the chili dog you ate last night as a midnight snake, right?" Sally said sarcastically.

"Exactly! I'm glad you understand." Sonic joked, before noticing the annoyed glare Sally was giving him. With that, he wisely decided to change the subject.

"What was that weird thing that you said Nicole found out about the Void?" Sonic asked quickly, before Sally could get mad at him.

Sally noticed Sonic's topic change but fortunately didn't call him on it. "Okay, Sonic, first of all, this doesn't have anything to do with the Void. All that Nicole found was that there was a large energy spike at Robotnik's headquarters about fifteen minutes ago. The wavelength of the spike was similar to the wavelength found when one disappears into the Void, but with a few differences." Sally explained.

"Like what?" Sonic asked, attempting to sound interested but failing badly. All he was really waiting for was the order to go smash some SWATbots and get his adrenalin pumping.

"Well, like I was saying before, the energy spiked up once and quickly died down, this is unlike the steady energy flow that the entrance to the Void gives off. The blast also had shorter wavelength and higher frequency than the Void's during its original spike, but the wavelength lengthened as it died down. The energy pattern seems to match the theoretical energy that's supposed to be emitted during the event of the creation of a wormhole, rather than the dimensional gateway that's created when one enters the Void. It also shou--"

"STOP!" Sonic yelled, "You're making my head hurt. Just tell me what I, er, _we_ have to do without frying my brain in the process!"

"I'm just repeating what Nicole said to me!"

"I don't care! Keep all that technical stuff to yourself!"

"All you're waiting for is for me to order you to attack Robotropolis! Sonic, I was _trying_ to explain this to you; I don't think this occurrence was Robotnik's doing!"

"What are you talking about!? _Everything _that happens is 'Buttnik's doing!_ He's_ the root of why our lives are such crap now! If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't have to worry about some mondo-crazy machine that turns people into robotic slaves! If it wasn't for him, all my old friends would still be alive! If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't be fighting this stupid war!!" Sonic screamed, every word dripping with rage.

"If it wasn't for him, we would never have met." Sally responded, almost whispering.

Upon saying this, Sally saw Sonic visibly relax, his shoulders falling back to a more natural position rather than being stiff and scrunched up near his neck. Sonic just stared at her, his eyes layered with so many emotions that it was impossible to decipher. Sally stared back, her eyes, unlike Sonic's, were giving one clear message:_ I'm there for you. _After a few seconds, Sonic broke the gaze and, without saying a word, Sonic turned around and left Sally's hut.

Only a few minutes after Sonic left did Bunnie Rabbot enter Sally's hut **(A/N: If Tails can't stand Miles Prower, how the hell can Bunnie stand her name!? And people say 4Kids are bad with puns…)**. Bunnie was a brown rabbit who usually wears a purple leotard with a black belt. Her most distinctive feature by far though was the fact that both her legs and her left arm were permanently robotized, casing half of her in drab, unattractive steel.

Bunnie looked to see Sally sitting in her bed, reading an apparently random article on Nicole's database. Bunnie sighed, before sitting down next to Sally.

"Looks like you an' Sugar-hog have had a little fight." Bunnie said, with a slightly questioning tone of voice despite it not being a question.

"Not as much a fight than one of Sonic's releases of pent-up anger at Robotnik." Sally replied. "It wouldn't happen if Sonic didn't act so carefree all the time, as if nothing was wrong. He just keeps it all to himself until his dam overflows and releases everything at once. This was actually one of his better outbursts, surprisingly enough."

"That's good." Bunnie mumbled. She was one of the few people in Knothole to know about Sonic's outbursts, most of the village thought that Sonic's heroic, sarcastic personality was his real one. The only other person in the village, other than herself and Sally of course, that knew of Sonic's "outbursts" was, for some reason, Tails. This confused Bunnie tremendously since she always made a deliberate effort to make sure Tails was somewhere else if Sonic started releasing his anger, she knew that it would hurt Tails to see his life-long hero's darker, angry side. As far as she knew, Tails was always at the lookout station or helping Rotor with his mechanics or doing_ something_ while Sally dealt with Sonic's pent-up emotions.

Nevertheless, despite all her efforts:

_--__Flashback__--_

_Bunnie slumped into Tails' bedroom, ears drooping, fur ragged, and all the associated side-effects of being yelled at for ten minutes straight._

_Tails smirked. "You look like you've been the victim of one of Sonic's anger outbursts."_

_--__End flashback__--_

Bunnie immediately asked (waving hand) Tails how he knew about that, but Tails refused to answer her, after apparently (waving hand) realizing that he wasn't supposed to know about it.

Bunnie knew (waving hand) that Sally wouldn't have (waving hand) told Tails about (waving hand) Sonic's (waving hand) out- (waving hand) (waving hand) (waving hand).

"Bunnie! Bunnie! Snap out of it!"

Suddenly Bunnie became aware of the real world again, and saw Sally waving her hand in front of her face.

"Hunh? What happened?" Bunnie asked, unknowingly copying Sonic from earlier.

"You just pulled a Sonic on me Bunnie! I started trying to talk to you but you just zoned out for whatever reason. Sonic fell asleep in my company less than half an hour ago. Am I really that boring?"

"No, Sally-girl." Bunnie said reassuringly, "You're not boring; I just started thinking about some things, that's all."

"Yeah, okay." Sally mumbled, unconvinced.

Bunnie stood up and started walking towards the door but turned around to face Sally a few paces from the exit.

"Y'all said something about that big energy spike-thingy at Robuttnik's headquarters, right?" Bunnie asked.

"Yes..." Sally said hesitantly, unsure of where this was going.

"Y'all should probably go investigate that spike, or whatever it is. It could be 'Buttnik's doing, you never know. Either way, if I told Sugar-hog that we were going to investigate, I'd cheer him up."

Sally brightened. "Yes, that's a good idea. It won't be anything big, just enough to put Sonic in a good mood again, right? Yeah, thanks Bunnie."

"Should I go tell Sugar-hog now?"

"Yeah, go for it."

Bunnie nodded, before turning around and opening the door to Sally's hut with her flesh arm (her robotized arm would crush the doorknob). She left the hut, and then walked down the path to the Knothole food court, where she knew Sonic would be.

Somehow, she knew that this mission wouldn't be as easy as Sally described. She ignored this feeling, but it persisted. While she was able to shake the feeling off by the time she got to the food court, she would later remember it as the warning she didn't listen to and the beginning of the greatest adventure the Freedom Fighters had ever faced!

Around that same time, she would've realized that she didn't have too much time left in her life to think about what would've happened if they delayed the mission, but that's for Chapter 16.

In any case, she ignored the feeling, ignored the warning, and walked over to Sonic who was sitting on the bench munching away on a huge plate of chili dogs. She was initially surprised by this, since the Freedom Fighters have not been able to hunt for the last week because of a poison Robotnik unleashed to kill the nearby non-sapient wildlife, but soon she remembered that Sonic stored some chili dogs for "emergency" use soon after the poison was released.

"_He's eating week-old meat? How gross!" _Bunnie thought.

Bunnie walked up to Sonic and tapped him on the shoulder. Sonic didn't notice during his frantic eating. Still calm, Bunnie tapped his shoulder a bit harder.

"Mobius to Sonic. Do ya read me?"

Sonic took no notice. Either he was really involved in the eating of the chili dogs, or that unknown shinning light in the sky just felt like making Bunnie yell.

"SONIC!!" Bunnie yelled while shaking his shoulder frantically.

Sonic took no noti--just kidding!

Sonic immediately woke up from chili dog dreamland and jumped a few feet in the air at Bennie's yelling.

"Hey! What was _that_ for!? I wasn't doing anything wrong!" Sonic yelled back.

If looks could kill… Sonic wouldn't have died because our very own Ms. Rabbot is quite forgiving.

Instead, Bunnie just sighed and said, "Sal wants me to tell ya that we're gonna go investigate that big spike thingy soon. I assume you're gonna want to come right?"

"Of course!" Sonic said enthusiastically, jumping out of his seat. "Whatever 'Buttnik's up to, he won't get away with it as long as the Hedgehog's in town! Let's juice an' jam!"

With that ridiculous statement, Sonic threw his last chili dog in the air, caught it in his mouth expertly, swallowed it in one bite, and sped out of the food court leaving a hurricane-like wind in his wake.

As Bunnie marveled for what seemed to be the thousandth time of how insanely fast Sonic really was, she felt the old feeling of dread fall upon her. Her warning. Still thinking herself paranoid, she brushed the warning away for a final time.

With that, she followed Sonic outside, unprepared for the adventure that would follow.

* * *

**A/N: I've left every chapter off with at least a semi-cliffhanger so far haven't I? Sorry about that, I just can never find a good place to end each chapter. Eh, whatever.**

**I just feel like mentioning this, since it's bothered me for a while: What the HELL is "It's juice and jam time"?! It's like, such an absurd phrase that has been stated so often in both SatAM and Underground (I never watched AoStH, nor read the comics, so I wouldn't know if** **it's mentioned there too). At least the phrase was cut from SatAM season 2. But it still bothers me.**

**Also, you know how I said that you could skip the HGTSV entries if you want last chapter? I take that back. I originally planned one entry per chapter about a whole bunch of things, relevant to the story or not. I've decided not to do that anymore. From now on the only HGTSV entries you'll see are the ones that contribute to the plot somehow. That means there'll probably only be three or four more entries for the remainder of this fic. Disappointed? I hope not, as well as doubt it.**

**The chapter title, for those who don't understand, is referring to how many people were ignored this chapter. Sonic ignored Sally. Bunnie ignored Sally. Sonic ignored Bunnie. And Bunnie ignored the all-important warning that cliché states **_**must**_** appear around the beginning of a fic to build tension. **

**Now for what you're waiting for: I am **_**not**_** promising to get the next chapter out soon, seeing what happened to my last promise. I truly **_**believe**_** that I'll get it out much sooner, but I am not promising. **

**God, I write too many authors' notes. Believe it or not, this isn't even as much stuff I was planning to say here. I also wanted to write about why I made Sonic have his OOC outburst, and why—**

**Wait, no. I've **_**got**_** to stop rambling. Author's Note End. **


	5. Chao Killer

**While I know that **_**nothing**_** could be worth the wait, I hope this entertains anyone who reads this nevertheless.**

* * *

_Universe: Sega_

_Location: 7312 Pendrell St, outskirts of Station Square._

_Date: 6:25 pm, Dec. 21, 2012._

Tails, having spent the last forty-five minutes flying to Station Square, was currently trudging through the snow up to Sonic's house, hoping that Sonic was home so that he could ask if he could stay there for a while until he found somewhere else to live. Tails was still pretty angry about being ejected from his home and workshop, and it certainly didn't help that he had _no idea when the workers would be done_. It was insane! They could take _years_ if they wanted and he couldn't do _anything_ about it!

Tails sighed. He tried to ignore his situation for now; he couldn't do anything about it, after all. Instead, he tried to focus on other things.

'_It's so COLD out here! How can the humans stand it? They don't even have any fur!'_

Tails ended this train of thought quickly. _'Why is it that all my thoughts have been negative recently?'_

During the time Tails was thinking these thoughts, he walked the final block to Sonic's house. Tails didn't snap out of his thoughts until he was right up at the doorway, ready to knock. He was mildly surprised about this, since he couldn't remember walking the full distance, but he just brushed the little observation aside and knocked.

No one answered.

Tails knocked again, wondering if Sonic was home or not. He _thought_ that Sonic was home, since he rarely went out for a run in the snow. Usually he just hangs out at home during the colder months.

Unless, he went for a run where it was warmer.

Tails slapped his forehead in frustration.

He suddenly remembered that Sonic said that he planned to go down to the southern hemisphere that this year. Tails himself suggested it! Nevertheless, Tails waited patiently for someone to answer his knocking, even though he was quite certain that no one would. His suspicions were quickly proven correct when he didn't hear Sonic rushing to open the door for his little bro.

'_See, THIS is why I wish Sonic had a cell phone, now I'm stuck out here for god-knows how long in the freezing cold!'_ Tails thought with dismay. He quickly used that 300 IQ of his to think of another option. The answer was obvious.

'_Wow, I'm slow today. It must be the cold.'_

Meanwhile, Amy Rose and Cream the Rabbit were walking down the street back from their exhausting day of shopping. Well, exhausting for Cream at least, Amy seemed more than ready to tackle another entire mall if she had enough money to do so.

"Wasn't that day fun Cream? Shopping always makes me feel so much better. And look! We have all the new styles now! I can't wait until I show Sonic my new dress! I'll look so hot in it that he'll finally take me out on a date! My purple skirt looks so pretty too though, maybe I should wear it on our date rather than Tails' party. Speaking of which, should I show Sonic my new clothes before the party or wait? I could wear the yellow leotard and show him tomorrow or something, but that would…"

Cream, bored out of her cute little skull like all kids forced to put up with the dreaded "shopping spree", stopped listening to Amy's rant, classifying her as background noise. She occasionally heard a few words, like "Sonic" and "girlfriend" and "married". From these few words, Cream concluded that Amy was entering one of her delusions again.

"So Cream, how'd you think of our day?"

Cream looked up to see Amy's green eyes peering into her own expectantly, waiting for Cream to tell her how great their day was together.

"Umm…" Cream was stuck. Being the polite rabbit she was, she didn't want to tell Amy how bored she was when shopping. But she also was taught never to lie by her mother, and she would never lie to her best friend.

"Umm…" Cream repeated, looking for a way out of Amy's unintentional trap. Looking up, she saw her new savoir flying past them, Tails.

"Hi Tails!" Cream called out, taking advantage of the situation.

"Oh, huh?" Tails said confused, unaware of the source of the voice. He soon looked down and saw Cream waving up to him and Amy just starting to look up.

"Oh, hey! Amy, I was looking for you. In fact I was just going over to your house." Tails said as he descended down to street level and started walking with them.

"You were looking for me? Do you have for me a message from Sonic?" Amy asked Tails excitedly.

"Er, no. Actually I was wondering whether you knew when Sonic would be back from wherever he's gone off to. You seemed to be the person most likely to know." Tails said with a small smirk.

"You're looking for Sonic too?" Amy asked him, disappointed. "I haven't seen him all day. I was hoping you knew where he was. Anyway, have you finished decorating your place for the Christmas party or do you want me and Cream to come and help?"

"Oh yeah." Tails said, suddenly remembering the party planned for his currently unavailable workshop. "Sorry you guys. We can't have the party at my place anymore. You think we can have it at your place Amy?"

"Why can't we have it at your place, Tails?" Cream asked him.

"Well, I was kinda… ejected from my workshop. That was actually the reason I wanted to find Sonic, I need a place to stay for a while."

"You were _ejected_ from your place Tails? Who did that to you? You shouldn't let people push you around Tails, stand up for yourself! I can go teach them a lesson if you want!" offered Amy excitedly.

"No no no, it's fine. It's fine. It's nothing to get excited about. Just forget about it." Tails frantically said, trying to keep Amy from going on a Piko-Piko Rampage.

"If you say so." Amy said, unconvinced.

"Anyway, you didn't answer my question from earlier Amy." Tails said, trying to change the subject. "Do you think we can have the party at your house instead?"

"Oh yeah, of course! I'll call Decorators Unlimited right now!" Amy said as she pulled out her bright pink cell phone, dialling the number "1-800-DECOR8".

"Hello. I would like to speak to Mr. Ribbon. Yes, I know him, I'm a preferred customer! Yes, hi Mr. Ribbon. You know where my place is right? Yeah. Yes. I would like green and red coloured…"

As Amy started her long over-the-phone decorating setup, Cream and Tails were left to talk to each other.

"Hi Tails."

"Hi Cream."

…

Awkward silence.

Then Tails noticed something he felt like he should have noticed before. His brain was still slow. It _must _be due to the cold.

"Where's Cheese?" Tails asked Cream.

"What do you mean Tails?" asked Cream innocently.

"You know, Cheese. Where's Cheese? Your chao."

"Oh, I just need a new Cheese soon." said Cream, still smiling.

Utterly confused, Tails persisted with his questions.

"What do you mean that you need a new Cheese soon? What happened to Cheese?!"

"I name all my chao Cheese." Cream said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Where's your _old _Cheese then?!"

"Well, you know when I throw Cheese at one of Eggman's nasty robots? I think Cheese doesn't like me doing that, because he never comes out of the bang that happens after the robot goes boom. I guess they never come back 'cause they don't like me doing that, so I always have to go get more Cheeses." Cream said, still smiling innocently, but slightly confused about why Tails was interested in this.

Tails, for his part, was now something he thought he would never be in his entire life: scared of Cream, the unintentional chao-killer.

After a few minutes of Tails' brain refusing to process the new information, Amy hung up her cell phone, conveniently missing out on the whole conversation.

"Hey, guess what? The decorating guys are going to decorate my place completely free! All I had to tell them was that it was a Christmas party for my dear Sonikku and they agreed to do it for nothing! …after I told them I might be _slightly_ forcefully persuasive if they didn't agree, but that's not the point. The point is our party is back on track!" Amy said with ridiculous amounts of enthusiasm.

"Uh, Amy?" Tails said hesitantly, hoping to tell someone about the disturbing info he just heard. "Amy, can I talk to you for a minute about, uh…"

"Not now Tails, we have to go to my place and boss the decorators around. Let's go!"

"Yippee!" Cream squealed.

Tails got grabbed forcefully by Amy and started being dragged along the sidewalk to Amy's house. He just sighed and resolved that girls are weird. No point trying be sane in an insane world, right?

--

_Location: Unnamed forest in the mountains North of New Westopolis._

_Time: 6:05 pm, Dec. 21, 2012._

Sonic was looking around at all the blood marks in the freshly fallen snow. The snow prints were certainly ones of Egg Pawns, but he couldn't understand why Eggman killed so many animals. He wasn't _that_ crazy.

As Sonic wondered why _anyone_ would have any use of killing innocent animals, his highly sensitive ears heard a slight rustling behind him. He was being watched. Not wasting a second, Sonic instinctively turned around and sped towards the intruder, hoping to catch it off guard.

He ran to it quickly, curling into a spin-dash ready to slice the robot in half without attracting any of the others he knew must be around; but then:

"Oh! It's just you Knux." Sonic said as he quickly stopped himself, seeing the bright blood coloured echidna gliding toward him.

'_Blood coloured? Okay, stop thinking these things; calm down Sonic.' _Sonic told himself.

"Yes, it's just me Sonic. Am I not good enough or something?" Knuckles asked him sarcastically.

"No, no, I was just expecting you to be one of Eggman's robots. I figured they might come back here to clean up." Sonic told him, motioning toward the bloody, smells-of-death countryside.

Knuckles looked around, noticing the remains of the mini-battle that took place here. Obviously the evil-looking Eggman he saw in his vision doesn't have any morals at all, unlike their own. He was just about to tell Sonic about what he saw when Sonic interrupted him.

"So Knux, how did you find me here in the middle of nowhere anyhow?" Sonic asked him.

"Easy, I followed the wind; you always pick up a storm when you run." Knuckles answered.

Sonic smirked. "Whoa, that's smart, especially coming from someone like you."

Knuckles couldn't decide whether he was being complimented or insulted, so he played it safe:

"HEY!!"

Sonic just laughed.

Knuckles realized they were getting off-topic, so he finally said what he was trying to say since he got here.

"Hey listen, Sonic. We've got some bad news…"

--

_Location: Dr. Eggman's base in Mystic Ruins_

_Date: 6:25 pm, Dec. 21, 2012._

"Decoe! Arrange the robots and equipment needed to stage an invasion of Central City!"

"Yes, Master Robotnik sir!"

"Bocoe! Complete the calculations involved in the making of the blueprints for the roboticizor!"

"Yes Master Robotnik sir!"

"Bokkun! Bring me a beer!"

"Yes Master Robotnik sir!"

Robotnik _almost_ smiled when the black chao-like creature with a jetpack brought him his alcoholic drink. Having two robots and one half-robot around to do his bidding was so much easier than just having Snively around. Courtesy of Decoe and Bocoe, he knew that he had only forty-eight hours before his went back. Robotnik decided that within that time, he would inject as much terror as possible into the civilians of his temporary home. That included, obviously, creating a robotizer. He planned to soon test the robotizer with a few dead, non-sapient animals, before moving on to bigger, better things. He collected the samples from a small forest, where he thought the bloodshed wouldn't be noticed. Unfortunately for him, Sonic and Knuckles noticed said bloodshed and were now on his tail.

"Decoe! Status report!"

"Robotic army currently at twenty-three percent charge. Analysis suggests that you wait until eighty-five or more percent charge for maximum efficiency. At current rate, the army will be ready by 7:42 pm, December 23." Decoe said, nervously. He wasn't ready to deal with the full scale invasion Eggman's counterpart had in store for Central City.

"WHAT?!" Robotnik yelled, "That's in two days! I'll be gone by then!! If you don't get my army ready before then, then you're going in the scrap heap!!"

"Er, yes sir! We'll get it done faster...uh, somehow."

"Good, good..."

* * *

**A/N: Here I am, ending the chapter with my standard Eggman/Snively/Robotnik phrase. Great isn't it?**

**Also, about the Cheese scene, am I the only one who doesn't wonder why Cheese doesn't die in the explosion that follows destroyed Eggbots? Look at Sonic Heroes for instance. Big boom. **

**Anyway, like usual, don't expect any updates soon.**


	6. Cancelled

*reads chapter title*

...Oh noes!

For those who read my comics on DeviantART, you have probably read the comic "Final Fox - Part 3". That comic was an "explanation" comic, it explained how many parts of the previous comics all came together to form the finale. Well, this fic was supposed to have a similar ending. It's just my style. This fic was planned to have a very specific ending, and I had a very complex explanation in mind on how to get to that ending.

Here's the problem: I haven't written anything for this fic for so long that I've completely and utterly forgotten what my explanation was. XP I had typed the explanation out long ago, but that's when my flash drive corrupted and I lost it. I never recovered it, and never even thought of it.

I know you're all thinking now "Why are you cancelling this fic if the only problem is that you can't remember the plot? Makes something up!" It's not that simple. You don't know how this fic is planned to end. Just think Final Fox times ten when it comes to complexity. It's impossible for me to continue at this point because I've already been foreshadowing things in the chapters I've posted, so I can't even make up a _new_ explanation. And I can't make up a new ending, because this fic _is_ the ending. The ending of this fic is the gimmick, the stuff about Eggman/Robotnik switching places is almost an afterthought in comparison.

_...However_, if I think up a new middle _and_ beginning that can fit with the ending, _then_ maybe I could continue this...

**TL;DR version: This fic is cancelled, but is pending rewrite. ;)**

PS: I actually realized this yesterday, but I didn't post this because telling you guys this on April Fools is too mean.


	7. Miscellaneous Author's Notes

As the chapter title suggests, I'm writing some miscellaneous stuff about this fic for the hell of it.

There was a lot of stuff planned for this fic. And I mean a _lot_ of stuff. I don't even remember much of what I planned, but it was a lot. Probably too much, because I probably would've skipped over a lot of my ideas while never expanding on them/making them interesting. That's why I've been integrating quite a lot of what I planned into other fics I've written.

Take _Sweet Sweet Sweet_, for example. For that fic I reused quite a lot of ideas that would've gone into this one. For example, near the end of _The Other Empire_, one of the Robotniks was planned to win, and create his empire over the ruins of the world. This isn't a spoiler, it's pretty much outright said by the HGTSV in the beginning of the opening chapter. "_As you very well know, being citizens of the Robotnik Empire..._" The idea of Robotnik winning against Sonic and friends was obviously a major part of _Sweet Sweet Sweet_, as it would've been in _The Other Empire._

There's more too. The attack on Station Square and Angel Island hinted at and described in _SSS_ were both ideas reused from _TOE_. What was planned was that Central City would be invaded by an army of robots (see the end of Ch. 5 of this fic) and Angel Island would be bombarded with a missile strike (the same missiles described with such detail in _SSS_). In _SSS_, of course, the missiles were used on Station Square as well, which I did because I didn't want to have to write about Tails fighting with the army before getting hurt, I just wanted him hurt. :P

Ch. 2 of _SSS _in general was actually a mish-mash of minor ideas from multiple points of _TOE_. Pretty much everything that happened in that chapter was inspired by something that would happen in this fic. Yes, even that horrid maiming of Chris was adapted from an event that would happen in _TOE_. Obviously it wouldn't have been so gruesome, and so random, but still, it's where the idea came from. Other minor ideas from _TOE_ are planned to be used in _Saccharine Sweet, _if I get around to writing it.

There were four major ideas I wanted to explore in _The Other Empire_. One was Eggman winning, I've already written about that. The other three are: One, Eggman using that machine from _Sonic Unleashed _(that turned Sonic into a Werehog) to split Sonic and Super Sonic into two different people; Two, a bunch of stuff about time-travel and the resulting paradoxes; and three, the ramifications of a twist ending that I'm not going to spoil.

When I first plotted the events of _TOE_, I didn't know much about _Sonic the Comic_, so I didn't know that splitting Sonic and Super Sonic had already been done. Granted, my Super wouldn't have been evil, but still. I'm not going to be using that idea for anything else I write.

I still like my ideas about time-travel though. It's simple enough that I'm sure others have written about the consequences of the paradoxical madness before, but I haven't read any of these writings. All my time-travel ideas have been adapted for a one-shot I'm writing (still) called _End the In._ I hope it's good.

As for the twist ending...I'm not spoiling that. I'm still not spoiling that. Because I still plan to use it, eventually. And whenever I do, _that _will be my rewrite of _The Other Empire_. Because, like _The Sixth Sense_, the twist _is_ the fic. Even if the fic that uses the twist isn't a Sonic fan fiction, that'll still be considered the rewrite. In order for the twist to be used, the fic in general will have to be very similar to _TOE_, because otherwise the twist wouldn't make any sense. It'd still have to be about villains switching universes...trying to take over the world in the new 'verse...etc.

Anyway, I think I've said all I wanted to say. See ya!


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